you must pardon me if I feem to go back, for we cannot raise any regular and durable pile of building without laying a firm foundation. Felton. $93. On the first Requifite, a Mastery of Language. The first thing requifite to a juft ftyle, is a perfect maftery in the language we write in; this is not fo easily attained as is commonly imagined, and depends upon a competent knowledge of the force and propriety of words, a good natural taste of ftrength and delicacy, and all the beauties of expreffion. It is my own opinion, that all the rules and critical obfervations in the world will never bring a man to a juft ftyle, who has not of himself a natural eafy way of writing; but they will improve a good genius, where nature leads the way, provided he is not too fcrupulous, and does not make himself a flave to his rules; for that will introduce a stiffness and affectation, which are utterly abhorrent from all good writing. By a perfect mastery in any 'language, I understand not only a ready command of words, upon every occafion, not only the force and propriety of words as to their fenfe and fignification, but more efpecially the purity and idiom of the language; for in this a perfect maftery does confift. It is to know what is English, and what is Latin, what is French, Spanish, or Italian, to be able to mark the bounds of each language we write in, to point out the diflinguishing characters, and the peculiar phrases of each tongue; what expreffions or manner of expreffing is common to any language befides our own, and what is properly and peculiarly our phrafe, and way of fpeaking. For this is to fpeak or write English in purity and perfection, to let the ftreams run clear and unmixed, without taking in other languages in the courfe: in English, therefore, I would have all Gallicifms (for inftance) avoided, that our tongue may be fincere, that we may keep to our own language, and not follow the French mode in our fpeech, as we do in our cloaths. It is convenient and profitable fometimes to import a foreign word, and naturalize the phrase of another nation, but this is very fparingly to be allowed; and every fyllable of foreign growth ought immediately to be discarded, if its ufe and ornament to our language be not very evident. Ibid. § 94. On the Purity and Idiom of Language. Greek While the Romans ftudied and used the their own, the Latin flourished, and grew tongue, only to improve and adorn every year more copious, more elegant, and expreffive; but in a few years after the ladies and beaux of Rome affected to speak Greek, and regarding nothing but the softness and effeminacy of that noble language, they weakened and corrupted their native tongue: and the monftrous affectation of our travelled ladies and gentlemen to speak in the French air, French tone, French terms, to drefs, to cook, to write, to court in French, corrupted at once our language and our manners, and introduced an abominable gallimaufry of French and English mixed together, that made the innovators ridiculous to all men of fenfe. The French tongue hath undoubtedly its graces and beauties, and I am not against any real improvement of our own language from that or any other: but we are always fo foolish, or unfortunate, as never to make any advantage of our neighbours. We affect nothing of theirs, but what is filly and ridiculous; and by neglecting the fubftantial use of their language, we only enervate and spoil our own. Languages, like our bodies, are in a perpetual flux, and stand in need of recruits to fupply the place of thofe words that are continually falling off through disuse : and fince it is fo, I think 'tis better to raise them at home than abroad. We had better rely on our own troops than foreign forces, and I believe we have fufficient ftrength and numbers within ourselves: there is a vaft treasure, an inexhaustible fund in the old English, from whence authors may draw conftant fupplies, as our officers make their fureft recruits from the coal-works and the mines. The weight, the ftrength, and fignificancy of many antiquated words, fhould recommend them to ufe again. 'Tis only wiping off the ruft they have contracted, and feparating them from the drofs they lie mingled with, and both in value and beauty they will rife above the standard, rather than fall below it. Perhaps our tongue is not fo mufical to the ear, nor fo abundant in multiplicity of words; but its ftrength is real, and its words are therefore the more expreffive: the peculiar character of our language is, that it is clofe, compact, and full and Ffz Our our writings (if you will excufe two Latin words) come neareft to what Tully means by his Prefa Oratio. They are all weight and fubftance, good measure preffed together, and running over in a redundancy of fenfe, and not of words. And therefore the purity of our language confifts in preferving this character, in writing with the English ftrength and spirit: let us not envy others, that they are more foft, and diffuse, and rarified; be it our commendation to write as we pay, in true Sterling; if we want fupplies, we had better revive old words, than create new ones. I look upon our language as good bullion, if we do not debase it with too much alloy; and let me leave this cenfure with you, That he who corrupteth the purity of the English tongue with the moft fpecious foreign words and phrases, is just as wife as thofe modifh ladies that change their plate for china; for which I think the laudable traffic of old .cloaths is much the fairest barter. Felton. $95. On Plainnefs and Perfpicuity. After this regard to the purity of our language, the next quality of a juft ftyle, is its plainnefs and perfpicuity. This is the greatest commendation we can give an author, and the beft argument that he is mafter of the language he writes in, and the fubject he writes upon, when we underftand him, and fee into the fcope and tendency of his thoughts, as we read him. All obfcurity of expreflion, and darkness of fenfe, do arife from the confufion of the writer's thoughts, and his want of proper words. If a man hath not a clear perception of the matter he undertakes to treat of, be his style never fo plain as to the words he uses, it never can be clear; and if his thoughts upon this fubject be never fo juft and diftinct, unless he has a ready command of words, and a faculty of eafy writing in plain obvious expreffions, the words will perplex the fenfe, and cloud the clearness of his thoughts. It is the unhappiness of fome, that they are not able to exprefs themselves clearly: their heads are crowded with a multiplicity of undigested knowledge, which lies confufed in the brain, without any order or diftinction. It is the vice of others, to affect obfcurity in their thoughts and language, to write in a difficult crabbed ftyle, and perplex the reader with an intricate meaning in more intricate words. The common way of offending against plainnefs and perfpicuity of flyle, is an af fectation of hard unufual words, and of clofe contracted periods: the faults of pedants and fententious writers; that are vainly oftentatious of their learning, or their wisdom. Hard words and quaint expreffions are abominable: wherever you meet fuch a writer, throw him afide for a coxcomb. Some authors of reputation have used a fhort and concife way of expreffion, I must own; and if they are not fo clear, as others, the fault is to be laid on the brevity they labour after: for while we study to be concife, we can hardly avoid being obfcure. We crowd our thoughts into too fmall a compafs, and are fo fparing of our words, that we will not afford enow to exprefs our meaning. There is another extreme in obfcure writers, not much taken notice ef, which fome empty conceited heads are apt to run into out of a prodigality of words, and a want offenfe. This is the extravagance of your copious writers, who lofe their meaning in the multitude of words, and bury their fenfe under heaps of phrases. Their understanding is rather rarified than condenfed: their meaning, we cannot fay, is dark and thick; it is too light and fubtle to be difcerned it is fpread fo thin, and diffufed fo wide, that it is hard to be collected. Two lines would exprefs all they fay in two pages: 'tis nothing but whipt fyllabub and froth, a little varnish and gilding, without any folidity or fubftance. : Ibid. § 96. On the Decorations and Ornaments of Style. The deepest rivers have the plaineft furface, and the pureft waters are always cleareft. Crystal is not the lefs folid for being transparent; the value of a style rifes like the value of precious ftones. If it be dark and cloudy, it is in vain to polifh it: it bears its worth in its native looks, and the fame art which enhances its price when it is clear, only debafes it if it be dull. You fee I have borrowed fome metaphors to explain my thoughts; and it is, I believe, impoffible to defcribe the plainnefs and clearness of ftyle, without some expreffions clearer than the terms I am otherwife bound up to use. You must give me leave to go on with you to the decorations and ornaments of ftyle: there is no inconfiftency between the plainness and perfpicuity, and the ornament of writing. A ftyle refembleth beauty, beauty, where the face is clear and plain as to fymmetry and proportion, but is capable of wonderful improvements, as to features and complexion. If I may tranfgrefs in too frequent allufions, because I would make every thing plain to you, I would pafs on from painters to fatuaries, whose excellence it is at firft to form true and juft proportions, and afterwards to give them that softness, that expreffion, that ftrength and delicacy, which make them almost breathe and live. The decorations of ftyle are formed out of those several schemes and figures, which are contrived to exprefs the paffions and motions of our minds in our speech; to give life and ornament, grace and beauty, to our expreffions. I fhall not undertake the rhetorician's province, in giving you an account of all the figures they have invented, and those feveral ornaments of writing, whofe grace and commendation lie in being used with judgment and propriety. It were endless to pursue this fubject through all the schemes and illuftrations of speech: but there are some common forms, which every writer upon every subject may use, to enliven and adorn his work. Thefe are metaphor and fimilitude; and thofe images and representations, that ⚫ are drawn in the ftrongest and most lively colours, to imprint what the writer would have his readers conceive, more deeply on their minds. In the choice, and in the use of these, your ordinary writers are most apt to offend. Images are very sparingly to be introduced their proper place is in poems and orations; and their ufe is to move pity or terror, admiration, compaffion, anger and refentment, by reprefenting fomething very affectionate or very dreadful, very aftonishing, very miferable, or very provoking, to our thoughts. They give a wonderful force and beauty to the fubject, where they are painted by a matterly hand; but if they are either weakly drawn, or unfkilfully placed, they raife no paffion but indignation in the reader. Felton. $97. On Metaphors and Similitudes. The most common ornaments are Metaphor and Similitude. One is an allufion to words, the other to things; and both have their beauties, if properly applied. Similitudes ought to be drawn from the most familiar and best known particulars in the world: if any thing is dark and obfcure in them, the purpose of using them is defeated; and that which is not clear itself, can never give light to any thing that wants it. It is the idle fancy of fome poor brains, to run out perpetually into a courfe of fimilitudes, confounding their fubject by the multitude of likeneffes; and making it like fo many things, that it is like nothing at all. This trifling humour is good for nothing, but to convince us, that the author is in the dark himself; and while he is likening his fubject to every thing, he knoweth not what it is like. There is another tedious fault in fome fimile men; which is, drawing their comparifons into a great length and minute particulars, where it is of no importance whether the refemblance holds or not. But the true art of illuftrating any subject by fimilitude, is, firft to pitch on fuch a refemblance as all the world will agree in: and then, without being careful to have it run on all four, to touch it only in the ftrongest lines and the nearest likeness. And this will fecure us from all ftiffness and formality in fimilitude, and deliver us from the naufeous repetition of as and fo, which fome fo fo writers, if I may beg leave to call them fo, are continually founding in our ears. I have nothing to fay to thofe gentlemen who bring fimilitudes and forget the resemblance. All the pleasure we can take when we meet thefe promiting sparks, is in the difappointment, where we find their fancy is fo like their fubject, that it is not like at all. $ 98. On Metaphors. Ibid. confideration in the ufe of them. They Metaphors require great judgment and confideration in the ufe of them. They are a fhorter fimilitude, where the likeness is rather implied than expreffed. The fignification of one word, in metaphors, is transferred to another, and we talk of one thing in the terms and propriety of ano ther. But there must be a common rcfemblance, fome original likenefs in nature, fome correfpondence and eafy tranfition, or metaphors are thocking and confused. The beauty of them difplays itself in their eafinefs and propriety, where they are naturally introduced; but where they are forced and crowded, too frequent and various, and do not rife out of the courfe of thought, but are conftrained and preffed into the fervice, inftead of making the dif Ff3 courfe courfe more lively and chearful, they make it fullen, dull and gloomy. You must form your judgment upon the best models and the most celebrated pens, where you will find the metaphor in all its grace and ftrength, fhedding a luftre and beauty on the work. For it ought never to be used but when it gives greater force to the fentence, an illuftration to the thought, and infinuates a filent argument in the allufion. The ufe of metaphors is not only to convey the thought in a more pleafing manner, but to give it a ftronger impreffion, and enforce it on the mind. Where this is not regarded, they are vain and trifling traih; and in a due obfervance of this, in a pure, chaste, natural expreflion, confift the juftness, beauty, and delicacy of style. $99. On Epithets. Felton. I have faid nothing of Epithets. Their bufinefs is to exprefs the nature of the things they are applied to; and the choice of them depends upon a good judgment, to diftinguish what are the most proper titles to be given on all occafions, and a complete knowledge in the accidents, qualities and affections of every thing in the world. They are of most ornament when they are of ufe: they are to determine the character of every person, and decide the merits of every caufe; confcience and juftice are to be regarded, and great kill and exactnefs are required in the ufe of them. For it is of great importance to call things by their right names: the points of fatire, and ftrains of compliment depend upon it; otherwife we may make an afs of a lion, commend a man in fatire, and lampoon him in panegyric. Here alfo there is room for genius: common juftice and judgment should direct us to fay what proper at leaft; but it is parts and fire that will prompt us to the most lively and moft forcible epithets that can be applied; and 'tis in their energy and propriety their beauty lies. is Ibid. There is one ingredient more required to the perfection of ftyle, which I have partly mentioned already, in fpeaking of the fuitableness of the thoughts to the fubject, and of the words to the thoughts; but you will give me leave to confider it in another light, with regard to the majesty and dignity of the fubject. It is fit, as we have faid already, that the thoughts and expreffions should be fuited to the matter on all occafions; but in nobler and greater fubjects, especially where the theme is facred and divine, it must be our care to think and write up to the dignity and majesty of the things we prefume to treat of: nothing little, mean, or low, no childish thoughts, or boyish. expreffions, will be endured: all must be awful and grave, and great and folemn. The nobleft fentiments must be conveyed in the weightieft words: all ornaments. and illuftrations must be borrowed from the richest parts of univerfal nature; and in divine fubjects, efpecially when we attempt to speak of God, of his wisdom, goodness, and power, of his mercy and juftice, of his difpenfations and providence (by all which he is pleafed to manifeft himself to the fons of men) we must raise our thoughts, and enlarge our minds, and fearch all the treasures of knowledge for every thing that is great, wonderful, and magnificent: we can only exprefs our thoughts of the Creator in the works of his creation; and the brightest of these can only give us fonie faint fhadows of his greatnefs and his glory. The strongest figures are too weak, the most exalted language too low, to exprefs his ineffable excellence. No hyperbole can be brought to heighten our thoughts; for in fo fublime a theme, nothing can be hyperbolical. The riches of imagination are poor, and all the rivers of eloquence are dry, in fupplying thought on an infinite fubject. How poor and mean, how bafe and grovel ling, are the Heathen conceptions of the Deity! fomething fublime and noble muft needs be faid on fo great an occafion but in this great article, the most celebrated of the Heathen pens feem to flag and fink; they bear up in no proportion to the dignity of the theme, as if they were depreffed by the weight, and dazzled with the fplendour of the fubject. : We have no inftances to produce of any writers that rife at all to the majefty and dignity of the Divine Attributes except the facred penmen. No less than Divine Inspiration could enable men to write worthily of God, and none but the Spirit of God knew how to exprefs his greatnefs, and difplay his glory in comparison of thefe divine writers, the greatest geniufes, the nobleft wits of the Heathen world, are low and dull. The fublime majefty and royal magnificence of the fcripture poems are above the reach, and beyond the power of all moral wit. Take the beft and livelieft poems of antiquity, and read them as we do the fcriptures, in a profe tranflation, and they are flat and poor. Horace, and Virgil, and Homer, lofe their spirits and their ftrength in the transfufion, to that degree, that we have hardly patience to read them. But the facred writings, even in our tranflation, preferve their majefty and their glory, and very far furpafs the brightest and nobleft compofitions ofGreece and Rome. And this is not owing to the richness and folemnity of the eastern eloquence (for it holds in no other inftance) but to the divine direction and affiftance of the holy writers. For, let me only make this remark, that the moft literal tranflation of the fcriptures, in the moft natural fignification of the words, is generally the beft; and the fame punctualnefs, which debafes other writings, preferves the fpirit and majefty of the facred text: it can fuffer no improvement from human wit; and we may obferve that those who have prefumed to heighten the expreffions by a poetical tranflation or paraphrafe, have funk in the attempt; and all the decorations of their verfe, whether Greek or Latin, have not been able to reach the dignity, the majefty, and folemnity of our profe: fo that the profe of fcripture cannot be improved by verfe, and even the divine poetry is moft like itself in profe. One obfervation more I would leave with you, Milton himself, as great a genius as he was, owes his fuperiority over Homer and Virgil, in majefty of thought and fplendour of expreffion, to the fcriptures: they are the fountain from which he derived his light; the facred treafure that enriched his fancy, and furnished him with all the truth and wonders of God and his creation, of angels and men, which no mortal brain was able either to discover or conceive: and in him, of all human writers, you will meet all his sentiments and words raised and fuited to the greatnefs and dignity of the subject. I have detained you the longer on this majesty of style, being perhaps myfelfcarried away with the greatnefs and pleasure of the contemplation. What I have dwelt fo much on with refpect to divine fubjects, is more eafily to be obferved with reference to human: for in all things below divinity, we are rather able to exceed than fall fhort; and in adorning all other fubjects, our words and fentiments may rife in a juft proportion to them: nothing is above the reach of man, but heaven; and the fame wit can raise a human fubject, Felton. that only debases a divine. $102. Rules of Order and Proportion. After all these excellencies of style, in purity, in plainnefs and perfpicuity, in ornament and majefty, are confidered, a finished piece of what kind foever muft fhine in the order and proportion of the whole; for light rifes out of order, and beauty from proportion. In architecture and painting, thefe fill and relieve the eye. A juft difpofition gives us a clear view of the whole at once; and the due fymmetry and proportion of every part in itself, and of all together, leave no vacancy in our thoughts or eyes; nothing is wanting, every thing is complete, and we are fatisfied in beholding. But when I fpeak of order and proportion, I do not intend any stiff and formal method, but only a proper diftribution of the parts in general, where they follow in a natural courfe, and are not confounded with one another. Laying down a fcheme, and marking out the divifions and fubdivifions of a difcourfe, are only neceflary in fyftems, and fome pieces of controverfy and argumentation: you fee, however, that I have ventured to write without any declared order; and this is allowable, where the method opens as you read, and the order difcovers itself in the progrefs of the fubject; but certainly, of all pieces that were ever written in a profefied and ftated method, and distinguished by the number and fucceffion of their parts, our English fermons are the completeft in order and proportion; the method is fo cafy and natural, the parts bear fo juft a proportion to one another, that among many Ff4 others, |